The mobile Internet Protocol (IP) provides portable access to IP communication services. Mobile IP allows an access terminal to roam from its home network while maintaining a relatively permanent IP address. By maintaining a relatively permanent IP address, mobile IP may provide relatively seamless communication services while the access terminal moves from one network to another.
A mobile IP enabled network generally includes a home agent in the access terminal's home network and a foreign agent in a visited network where the access terminal is located. The access terminal may be any mobile IP network aware device that may be used for data communications and may be, for example, a cellular telephone, a notebook computer, or a personal digital assistant (PDA). The access terminal may connect to the Internet by forming a point of attachment to the home agent or to the foreign agent. If the access terminal connects to the Internet through the designated home agent, registration of the access terminal may be performed with the home agent in the normal manner. If the access terminal connects to the Internet through the foreign agent, however the foreign agent negotiates the connection with the home agent to register the connection.